


Following Sea

by HazelBite



Series: Age of Sail AU [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: AU, Age of Sail, Community: 30_kisses, M/M, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-13
Updated: 2012-03-13
Packaged: 2017-11-01 21:20:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HazelBite/pseuds/HazelBite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 2, the continuation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Following Sea

Russell thought that the best way to handle this situation was to not say anything that could get him into trouble. The pirate captain didn’t seem to like this.  
  
“No reply? No begging for his life to be spared?” the man taunted. “What is the world coming to when the crew stops defending the Captain?”  
  
Russell made no acknowledgement.  
  
The Captain growled in anger and shoved Russell to his knees.  
  
“You will learn some respect,” the man grabbed Russell’s chin and forced him to look up. “If you behave yourself I may just let you live. After all, good doctors are scarce out here, no need to damage you just yet.”  
  
The man looked down at him with a sneer and dragged a rough fingertip down the side of Russell's face. He very barely held back a shiver of disgust.  
  
“Now, you are going to patch up some of my men and then you’re coming with me.”  
  
Russell chanced a look at Belsio who was being kept immobile by two of the men. No help there; he was surrounded by injured crew and pirates, and despair began to sink in.  
  
Just when Russell though there was no way he could get out of it there was a deafening crash and the entire ship lurched to one side. His captor’s grip loosened slightly in surprise and that was all Russell needed.  
  
Without thinking too much about what he was doing, he twisted around in the man’s grip and slashed at his hands with the knife he had grabbed earlier. The man let go on reflex and Russell lunged forward toward the captain.  
  
The pirate captain had turned to the door and was shouting at the rest of the men with him to see what had caused the commotion. Russell had but a moment to act, so he reached out and stabbed the captain in the main artery of his leg. Blood sprayed in all directions and the Captain looked down at his wound in shock before turning to Russell.  
  
The captain collapsed at once into a puddle of his own blood. Before Russell could register what he'd just done, the unmistakeable sound of a sword being drawn came from behind him. He turned to see his captor advance toward him with a murderous look on his face.  
  
He couldn’t very well fight someone with a sword using only a small surgical knife. But before Russell could panic, two figures came out of nowhere and tackled the man from behind. It took a moment to realize that it was two of his previously incapacitated patients: the Lieutenant he had just stitched up and another lieutenant with a concussion.  
  
More shouting and gun shots came from out in the passageway and Russell whirled around just in time to watch Al and two other crew members dart through the door to disarm and capture the men holding Belsio.  
  
“Everyone alright?” Al asked them and seemed satisfied with the dazed nods coming from them. “Captain Elric is in control of the ship and the Commodore is helping us round up the pirates.”  
  
Russell breathed a sigh of relief. Ed was fine, they were all going to be fine and, not only that, they had defeated the enemy!  
  
His attention turned back to the Lieutenants who had saved him and who were currently hog tieing the pirate with a bed linen. He didn’t know how to begin to thank them. The second Lieutenant seemed to notice and said something instead.  
  
“We figured we owed you one,” she flashed him a weak smile. “We are Lieutenants Ross and Brosh, by the way,” she continued on. She made to stand up but winced instead and Russell was instantly back into doctor mode.  
  
“Here, let’s make sure you didn’t tear your stitches,” he said in a kind voice and helped her over to the nearest bench.  
  
He spent the rest of the time double checking his patients while the post-battle hustle and bustle kept up around him.  
  
It wasn’t until he stopped for a last wash up and to change out of his blood stained clothes so he could sit down that the strain of the day and the realization that he had killed a man finally hit him.  
  
That’s where Ed found him, lost in guilty thoughts, sitting in a corner of the darkened infirmary while his patients slept around him.  
  
“Hey,” Ed said, in a low voice so as not to disturb anyone.  
  
It was only then that Russell looked up from where his hands fidgeted on his lap. Ed was kneeling in front of him and had placed his own hands on Russell’s to still their movement.  
  
“Belsio told me what happened,” he said in a serious voice. “He said you took down the captain of the  _Envy_ .”  
  
“I… I killed him and…” Russell stammered, paused, took a calming breath and went on, “he was going to kill us and I wanted to stop him. I took a vow to save lives, not take them.”  
  
“You did save lives,” Ed reassured him, “look around you. You saved all of them. There were no casualties because of you.”  
  
“I hadn’t realized,” Russell said softly.  
  
Ed smiled up at him and reached a free hand to the back of Russell’s neck pulling him closer to rest their foreheads together.  
  
“I don’t know how I can ever repay you,” Ed said softly, “not just for the lives of my crew but for stopping the man that the entire navy has been trying to catch for years, not to mention the man who had it out for me, personally.”  
  
Russell gave him a small smile and curled his arms around the other man’s shoulders. Ed did the same and they sat there for a few moments, enjoying the silence.  
  
It was when Ed shifted and could quite mask a wince that Russell noticed. “You’re bleeding,” he said.  
  
“It’s nothing,” Ed waved it off but Russell wasn’t fooled. The bandages that Ed had wrapped around his leg were drenched in blood.  
  
“That’s not nothing,” he said, alarmed. “How were you able to walk in here?”  
  
“It’s fine, I’ll just go back to my cabin and…” but when Ed started to stand up, his face drained of color and he lost his balance. Russell caught him easily.  
  
“You are  _not_  carrying me in front of my own crew!” Ed said, indignant.  
  
“Here, lean on my arm and I’ll help you to your cabin,” Russell compromised.  
  
&&&  
  
Ed put up a strong front while they made their way to his cabin but once he was inside, he collapsed onto the nearest chair.  
  
“Someone brought in surgical equipment,” Russell noticed, pleased.  
  
“He always knows,” Ed replied wearily, obviously referring to Belsio who really did seem like he knew everything that happened on this ship.  
  
Russell set to cleaning Ed up and, to distract him from the pain, asked him about what happened above deck.  
  
“That  _Envy_  bastard came straight for us,” Ed grunted as Russell brought his leg up to rest on a small stool, “he let the other two worry about the navy, I’m not surprised. He’s always had a vendetta against me.”  
  
Ed pulled in a sharp intake of breath as Russell cleaned his wound. It was deep and ran down his leg from just below the knee almost to his ankle. It was going to take a lot of stitches.  
  
“He must have picked up more crew since the last time I saw him because they had us boarded before I knew it and even  _he’d_  never managed that before now.  
  
“Then, of course, he had the audacity to stab me,” Ed went on, gesturing to his leg, “like he wanted me to lose this leg too.”  
  
“Is that why you have an automail leg as well?” Russell asked, threading a needle.  
  
“Yeah,” Ed nodded. “A few years back we ran into him off the coast of Drachma and they managed to knock down our aft mast. I remember seeing Al in the way of the falling beam so I ran up there and knocked him out of the way just before it landed on the deck. It ended up crushing my leg from the knee down.”  
  
Russell shuddered a bit at the thought.  
  
“It was a really good thing my mechanic was on board at the time otherwise I might not have proper use of it.” Ed paused, thoughtful. “It’d do it again though, for anyone on my ship.”  
  
They were silent for a moment until Russell said, hesitantly, “he told us you were his prisoner.”  
  
Ed looked angry at that. “That two-faced…he could never take me prisoner! After he stabbed me, two of my officers cornered him and I wrapped my leg up as best I could and ended up helping Al fend off some attackers below deck. His group must have overtaken the rest of the crew though,” he finished.  
  
“And what was that crashing?” Russell asked. “It was the perfect distraction.”  
  
“That was the  _Hayate_ ,” Ed replied, sourly. “He’s never going to let me live that one down, how  _his_  crew had to  _rescue_  mine.”  
  
Ed did not look overly pleased at the thought.  
  
Russell finished up what he was doing, putting a medicinal paste on Ed’s stitches and re-wrapping it loosely.  
  
“I don’t want you walking around any more than you have to,” Russell told him, sternly, moving around to clean up. Ed grabbed his wrist and Russell turned to face him.  
  
“I want to thank you,” he said, sincerely, “for everything. Especially for staying to help even when you didn’t have to.”  
  
&&&  
  
Russell stayed the night on the ship to help with the injured and had them all rigged up in hammocks above deck the next morning. He insisted that the fresh air would help them heal faster.  
  
Russell and Ed didn’t see much of each other that day, due to Ed supervising repairs and Russell supervising the infirmary but, every so often, they would lock eyes across the crowded deck and Ed would flash him that cocky grin and Russell would shake his head in amusement.  
  
Lieutenant Ross seemed to have taken a liking to him and started regaling him with stories of the ship’s past adventures, often accompanied by very spirited hand gestures. Russell found himself laughing on more than one occasion.   
  
He was pleased with the health of the man who had lost his foot. He and Belsio managed to get him sent back to Central on the least damaged frigate. If they got him to a mechanic soon then he had a very good chance of getting an automail replacement.  
  
By the end of the day, Russell was tired out but in a way that was wholly different from how he felt after the battle the day before. He felt like he had accomplished something, and was honored that the crew had welcomed him so quickly.  
  
Once Ed’s work was done for the day, he invited Russell to his cabin to share a bottle wine in celebration.  
  
They chatted for a bit over the day’s work, and Russell mentioned the good health of the injured - he was relieved to see that Ed’s wound was healing so quickly.  
  
“If this were any other time or place, I would ask you to join my crew,” Ed commented in a pleased voice before taking a sip of wine.  
  
This made Russell pause and, before he could talk himself out of it, said, “why don’t you ask me now?”  
  
Ed gave him a look of surprise over the rim of his glass.   
  
“What about your brother? Your clinic?”  
  
“My brother and his wife have been practically running the place by themselves already,” Russell realized the truth of this statement as he said it. He continued on, more to convince himself than Ed. “It’s about time I let him take full responsibility. He’s good, maybe even better than me.”  
  
“Don’t sell yourself short;” Ed replied in earnest, “there would have been casualties yesterday if not for you. We’ve never had a doctor like you on board.”  
  
"That also reflects on you," Russell added, since he'd had time to think about what that meant, and was not the kind of person to take all the credit. "You've obviously trained them well." He enjoyed the pleased look on Ed's face for the compliment.  
  
Russell watched Ed carefully as the other man stood up, placed his glass on the desk and took a few short steps to reach Russell.  
  
Ed knelt down in front of Russell’s chair, took his hand in both of his and said, very sincerely, “I would be honored if you would join my crew.”  
  
Ed’s wide eyes stared up at him. His hair was still disheveled from the day’s work and a few minor cuts were still visible but the healthy color was back in face and he looked utterly  _breathtaking_ .  
  
The man in front of him thought he was worth something, was asking him to stay,  _wanted_  him to stay and Russell realized that he wanted it too. The clinic was always going to be his brother’s and now Russell had a chance at something new, something he hadn’t even known he’d wanted.  
  
Ed’s hands still held his tightly, his gaze never faltering and Russell did not think as he tugged Ed closer, as he felt Ed’s breath on his cheek.  
  
And Russell especially did not think as he kissed him because there was nothing to think about. From the second he had arrived on this ship there was only one person, the one right in front of him. He had been lost to that man before he even realized it.  
  
Between Russell kissing him and burying his free hand in Ed’s hair, Ed had somehow managed to climb onto Russell’s lap, straddling him and kissing back with as much passion as Russell was sure he had with a sword in his hand.  
  
Russell moved his hands to Ed’s back, alternatively gripping his shirt and smoothing out the wrinkles. He pulled Ed even closer and Ed moved his hips in a way that said more than his kisses. He had never before felt the want so keenly. Russell replied by sucking on Ed’s tongue before letting Ed twine them together.  
  
The heat between them rose quickly and they broke apart, panting, faces flushed.   
  
They made it to the bed somehow. Russell had lost track of things very quickly at that point and before he knew it, they had left their clothes behind and were surging and moaning together on the small bunk. The motion of the waves while at anchor seemed to be helping them, as though the ocean itself was throwing them together.  
  
That was good enough, better than enough for Russell as he threw his head back against the bed with a low groan, fingers clenched around Ed’s arms, with the same muscles he had admired the day before, with the same fingers Ed had said were wonderful.  
  
And they were thrusting, moving, Ed from above and Russell from below and it was the greatest feeling Russell had ever experienced.  
  
And then he was back to the present with Ed looking down at him fondly, a soft smile crossing his face. The kind of smile he had never seen before in the short time they had known each other. He knew he would see it again. The thought thrilled him as Ed’s fingertips trailed aimlessly over his chest, arms, neck  
  
“I take it you accept?”   
  
And Russell couldn’t help but laugh as he leaned in to kiss Ed’s neck and breathe in the scent of him before showing him that it was yes, a million times yes, and would always be  _yes_ .

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a naval phrase referring to a wave or tidal movement going in the same direction as a ship.
> 
> Fills prompt #29 [the sound of waves] at 30_kisses.


End file.
